Firewire. What are YOU editing on? I need opinions.

Hello. I have been filming with an XL1 for quite awhile now. All this time I have been using my work's Pinnacle DV300 card to capture and edit my footage.

Now I've decided to actually BUY one so I can do my captures at home. I can't decide on a single card to get. Price is important. I will be using the setup to capture and edit footage for my movie.

I have been looking at the DV500 Plus as a real-time solution. However, the price is just a bit much AND people have told me of configuration problems. Someone recommended a Canopus DVRaptor-RT, but I've heard that it puts a lot of demand on your computer system. I would honestly like to think that the DVRaptor would be the perfect solution for me.

Another suggestion from someone is the basic ADS Pyro Firewire card. It's a quick and cheap solution but not realtime.

I guess what I'm really asking here is: What is your editing configuration? What kind of card are you editing with? What computer setup do you have? And OPINIONS! Regrets? Wishes for a better NLE system?

[Adrian Douglas]

Check the classifieds on this board, there is a DV300 for sale

[Bill Ravens]

Quick and cheap: Pinnacle's Studio DV with Hollywood FX Pro transitions. Studio DV works with any generic 1394 bus controller; and, lets me pick whatever compression CODEC I have installed on my system. I will capture in lossless Huffyuv and output to AVI for transposing by TMPGEnc. I use it for most of my editing, using Premier 6 only when I have to. Premier has never been very reliable for me. Pinnacle has a great web board and their members are always willing to help.

[Michael Rosenberger]

Been using the Canopus DVStorm for several months now. Has worked well. Like the realtime capabilities and they have just come out with realtime 3D DVE effects, coming this Decmeber, and that includes the Raptor as well I think. I am all for Canopus products. If you haven't done so, check out the Canopus user forums. Log in and go to the Raptor forum. You can get some good info there.

Pinnacle is also a fine product. I found I can do a little more realtime effects/layers on the Canopus than my friends Pinnacle system, but he bought his systems for a few hundred less than mine. I was also impressed with Sutdio DV package, though I haven't really put much time into using it.

Premiere with a compatable firewire card will also work if you just want to get your feet wet.

I have just completed a long documentary recently aired on Spanish cable Via Digital. It went to the Valladolid Film Festival last November.
The 106 minutes work was completed without a hitch on an Apple MacIntosh G4 double processor and FinalCut 2 AND a professional editor. Never would trust myself to such an extent.
For the simple effects we used Adobe Photoshop, great in its results and almost infinite in resources.
Sound had to go to a studio for postproduction. Too messy in its origin. The editor used Pro Tools in its most sophisticated and expensive configuration.
At the end of the process we incorporated a Matrox card. Great saver of time and worries, since most of the rendering disappears.
Hope it helps
Jose A Zorrilla

[Don Donatello]

been using VV for a year ... it does do real time previews - relys on pure CPU speed = faster = more RT capabilities ....
you can play back in real time as you continue to edit ..
under preference you can choose "SHOW original source time code" ( on thumbnails in the time line window you will see orginal time code from tapes ) which comes in very handy on documentarys


dell 4100 PIII 933 /512ram 20gig for win2K , have 2 80gigs internal and another 2 HD pull out slots ( have 4 - 80gig pull outs), have 2 80 gig firewire drives , pci ata 100 card , pyro 1394 firewire card ..

cutting 90 min documentary - current cut is 4 hrs ..started with 70hrs ....... my complaint was FIXED with new version of vegas video (v3) ....

in feb ?will get new computer ! maybe dual processors ?

looking now at the WD 120gig 7200rpm drives .......

I have been editing on the Matrox Digisuite LE platform for almost two years now. It's not strictly a firewire system, but I incorporated the firewire option so I can take in DV footage directly. The firewire board, however only allows me to input footage. Output is still analog, but since I still prefer the slightly softer of mastering to Beta SP, it works out nicely. But I digress. If I were buying a DV-based system today, I would look at the Avid Express DV software. It is a software codec, but if you max out your processor speed and your RAM, rendering times for routine transitions will be minimal. Plus, if you want to finish a project in a full blown Avid suite, you're fully compatible. Just walk in with your tapes and your floppy disk and you;re ready to go. A producer friend of mine just had just such a system built and it came in at a little over $6000.00. For a hardware based (i.e. real time) system, I would take a serious look at the Matrox RT 2500. Good luck.

[John Klein]

Apple Macintosh

Any one of them from the cheap iMac using iMovie. A super breeze. Get some extra RAM and an external firewire HD. (What, maybe $1,200-$2k complete)

Any G4 series and Final Cut Pro 2+, same additions, probably, $4k including software.

Very potent tools for the buck!

Don't forget the HarmanKardon sub/sat speakers so you can toss your stereo out to make room for the new TV!!!

[Robert Mann Z.]

i think it all depends on what kind of editing you plan on doing with your system...

for straight cuts from dv, your options then become based on your budget, from a highend avid dv, or mac with fcp (v3 does some realtime stuff)

on the cheap end any firewire card will do, might even come with an nle saving you bucks...or buy vv 3 it's very good


if you need to do fancy graphics or transitions like fade or such and color correction get a realtim card...i recomend dv storm or storm se, but thats my opinion..

[Nathan Gifford]

A number of people recommend the Canopus line. I have not heard too many people fuss about it so it mush be pretty good.

I'm using CineStream made by Discreet (sold to Discreet by Media 100). I like the system and it works well. Biggest drawback is the lack of a good audio mixing system, though it is better than the previous version.

For cuts only, it is blazingly fast. It does fine on transitions and special effects, but I tend not to use those very much. It is every bit Premiere equal, better in some ways, less in others (kind of touchy about using plug-ins).

CineStream has a pretty good users group and there are two pretty good training aids (EditDV 101, and Claire & Ron's CD on using CineStream. Both are excellent).

Nathan Gifford

[Drewid20]

I'm using AVID Xpress DV. It works great. I use a media composer here at school and the recent switch to Xpress DV was easy. I guess one of the only downsides is no realtime effects but its a pretty powerful tool. My setup rivals the G4 FCP systems at school.

[Michael Dontigney]

Canopus DV Storm user here. Very happy. Realtime output to the XL1... nice RT filters. Picture in Picture in RT is a real joy for those two camera wedding shoots. The Old Movie filter makes for a nice artsy intro/exit. All in real time. Solid stable drivers. The StormEdit app is pretty good for those quick edits, and the canopus softencode does a very good job of Mpeg2 elementary streams for DVD creation.

[Mike Butler]

Using a Mac G4 with FCP2 here, but can't wait to get FCP3 for the R/T capability--can't stand waiting for rendering, and time is indeed money in the corporate world.
System is solid as a rock, and everyone is pleased with my results. I particularly like how FCP handles layered Photoshop files--great for animating titles. I do most of the audio mixing, editing, sweetening etc. native in FCP, but take some of the music editing out to SoundEdit 16

i strongly suggest buying a mac. the firewire capabilities of the macs are amazing. all you need really is ram and disk space.

[Mike Butler]

>>>all you need really is ram and disk space.

..which is good news, because both are cheap now. Even the external Firewire hard drives are looking good, which is a real hoot if you want to work on a project at the shop, then take it home and work on it on your own Mac!